How to Image Your Hard Drive

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tarvoke · #31 Post by **tarvoke** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 12:26 am

instead of pirating or paying for software, use free software!

pmagic or gparted livecds work extremely well, and even allow copy+paste a partition from one disk to another. they also come in live-usb and pxe flavors...

rckrchrdsn · #32 Post by **rckrchrdsn** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 1:00 am

I have used Ghost, Disk Image, and Acronis. I think Acronis is a clear favorite for me. All three did the job, though Ghost gave me the most trouble over time. Disk Image worked great, until I put a RAID on my desktop and then even the latest version didn't understand. Acronis handled everything, though it is a younger product. And is price is in a sweet spot for me. I use it on everything for my big backups and my incrementals.

Though chosing any of them and using them is the key.

ragefury32 · #33 Post by **ragefury32** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 3:33 am

Well, technically you can get ntbackup and ASR to work for you if you are somewhat quick, but *eh*.

robert213 · #34 Post by **robert213** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:27 pm

Gee wrote: First get 2 adapters so the drives can be plugged into a desktop. Get a boot floppy of Ghost. Assuming the original drive is the master on primary and the new drive is master on the secondary.

Boot the floppy, run Ghost using these switches

ghost -clone,mode=copy,src=1,dst=2 -ib

You mentioned that this method works when both HDD are connected to IDE I/O ribbon while using a desktop computer.

What Ghost command-line switches would be required to use
T30 internal HDD as source
and USB 1.1 Apricorn DriveWire external HDD adapter as destination?

Would USB 1.1 even work while running under DOS?

Are these Ghost command-line switches what need to be used?
-usbm -usbs

buglawton · #35 Post by **buglawton** » Wed May 21, 2008 3:41 am

I have an X32 Thinkpad with an external USB CD-ROM reader but not writer. also have an external usb hard drive.

Is there a 'recipe' for backing up & restoring the Thinkpad with Acronis using just the USB hard drive? I don't want to overwrite that USB drive, just use some of it's spare space.

Alternatively, is there a 'recipe' using a spare hard drive for the Thinkpad for doing a complete test of backup restore? It might be worth investing in such a drive for this purpose, only I am not sure how I would copy the image to it...

Thanks!

K0LO · #36 Post by **K0LO** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:56 am

buglawton:

You can store an image file of your ThinkPad on the external USB hard disk. In Acronis True Image, choose to backup "My Computer" and choose your USB hard disk as the destination for the image file. You should back up the entire ThinkPad disk (all partitions) including the Recovery partition. This image file will be large, so make sure you have enough room on the external USB hard disk. With the normal (default) compression settings it will be about 70% of the total occupied disk space on all partitions. For example, if the recovery partition is 5 GB and your Windows partition has 8 GB used then the image file will be about 0.7 * 13 or about 9 GB.

You have the right idea for a test restore. To do this, purchase a spare hard disk. Remove your internal hard disk and put it aside for safe keeping. Install the new, blank hard disk and then boot from the Acronis recovery CD. Restore the complete image file from your USB hard disk to the internal disk. Reboot to test.

For further reading, True Image forum regular Grover Hatcher has written some fully-illustrated guides showing this procedure.

buglawton · #37 Post by **buglawton** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:02 am

Brilliant! Thanks

buglawton · #38 Post by **buglawton** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:37 am

Have made a backup of image using Acronis 8 and bought a used 2.5" ATA drive to do a test restore on.

Just purchased a usb gadget that should allow me to do the restore without having to first fit this disk - can anyone confirm if this gadget is correct - do I really not need to put the drive into a bay of some sort to connect it to this?

TeckNet VS408 USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable
http://www.tecknetdirect.co.uk/Product_ ... px?aid=472

K0LO · #39 Post by **K0LO** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:33 am

buglawton:

One thing you have to be careful of with ThinkPads is that most models use a nonstandard BIOS geometery to describe the disk (240 heads vs. the standard 255 heads). If your target disk for the restore is installed internally it will be seen with the correct geometry. If installed externally it may not, and the outcome is uncertain.

buglawton · #40 Post by **buglawton** » Tue May 27, 2008 3:04 pm

Thanks for the heads-up. I assume this would affect the way any disk is formatted - different depending on if installed internally or externally.

I wonder if Acronis takes account of this when making an image to a USB disk...

As much as anything I wanted to know if the connector on this USB adaptor is capable of plugging onto the disk directly - it is described as a TeckNet VS408 USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable! now, does IDE mean if will plug straight onto a 2.5" ATA drive?

K0LO · #41 Post by **K0LO** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:51 pm

buglawton wrote:...I wonder if Acronis takes account of this when making an image to a USB disk...

No, with most ThinkPads you must have the destination of the clone installed as the internal drive.

As much as anything I wanted to know if the connector on this USB adaptor is capable of plugging onto the disk directly - it is described as a TeckNet VS408 USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable! now, does IDE mean if will plug straight onto a 2.5" ATA drive?

I think so - from the picture it looks like the drive connector might have both a 40-pin connector for a 3.5" desktop drive and a 44-pin connector for a 2.5" laptop hard drive. But if not, you would need one of these to adapt.

buglawton · #42 Post by **buglawton** » Wed May 28, 2008 2:56 am

Thanks for that, BTW looks as if that link is dead.

So all I'll b able to do with the adapter is explore the drive or maybe recover files from an unbootable disk. Well for about $20 for the adapter that's OK I suppose. Ultrabays come in a bit more expensive!

buglawton · #43 Post by **buglawton** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:40 pm

Update on my adaptor: My Seagate 2.5" Momentus 5400 2 drive has a 7 pin and a 15 pin edge connector next to each other, directly on it's main pcb.

The adaptor that arrived today has:

1. A lead that will connect the 7 pins to the USB adaptor part (that also has 2 IDE plugs on it) and

2. A 2nd lead that looks like it connects to the 15 pin edge, having on the other end what looks like a PC power socket that goes onto the power supply.

Meanwhile back on the disk drive is a mini power socket that with the current leads would remain unused.

So I am not quite sure if this lot is going to work together - if I plug together the bits that physically connect will I blow up the drive? Any advice?

How to Image Your Hard Drive

Acronis gets my nod

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